


A Worthy Opponent

by Louis_the_Snake



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean Lance (Voltron), Galra Keith (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Lance (Voltron) is Good With Kids, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:15:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26945032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Louis_the_Snake/pseuds/Louis_the_Snake
Summary: Keith is a superhero on the Defenders. Lance is the Sniper who works with Lotor's Generals. So why does Keith find Lance so hard to punch?
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 53





	A Worthy Opponent

Keith had been a hero for about as long as he’d been aware of his powers. After being born half-alien or whatever and Shiro getting taken and returned by some other space beings and the Defenders team-thing being formed with him on it he figured he was probably predestined to end up the brooding knife guy.   
You had Allura, this flying alien beauty with powers like minor shapeshifting and superstrength and energy beams; Shiro, the leader and strategist good-old-american hero who had his arm replaced by some evil alien engineers; Pidge, resident tech genius and green thumb who hated the dirt with plant manipulation powers; Hunk, the invincible foodie and heart of the team, and Coran, who was another alien but who outfitted them with weapons and intel.   
Keith was there, but his fireproof skin and enhanced reaction and dexterity made him less useful on big group missions and better suited for stealth operations working with the non-super government. He still ended up in group pictures and as an action figure and coming along to publicity events, despite a remarkable number of people confusing him and Allura for some reason. He was one of the Defenders, and he was good at his job. He took down alien threats and unknown beasts and he defended- hah- the people who needed protection. He wasn’t better than anyone else, wasn’t more moral or anything, he was just strong and had to use it.  
In fact, Keith was pretty content just following orders and protecting people until he got shot.   
It was a .308 round, shot from 760 meters northeast of the rooftop Keith had backed Ezor onto. Ezor got away because of the distraction, and Keith was pissed. Coran elected to leave the bullet in Keith’s shoulder because of the potential nerve damage to his left arm should he retrieve it.   
The sniper responsible was revealed in one of Lotor’s announcements to the public. It was a half-altean named Lance who had no noticeable Altean blood save for the cheek marks. Lotor called him his cousin, but Allura could find no record of Haggar having any siblings.   
Lance was tall and fit and he looked right at home among Lotor’s ‘generals’, even if he was half-altean rather than half-galran. Hunk mentioned the symmetry of the opposing forces having a hothead member on their team who was a half-breed from the races traditionally associated with the other side. The defenders have a half-galran and the generals have a half-altean, so that proved neither race was inherently good or evil and it was all choice, right?   
Hunk had probably intended to comfort Keith with that. Keith was not comforted by it. He would prefer having a sniper on their side, since they were lacking a little in long ranged combat.   
While his bullet wound healed, the Defenders had him on pr duty. He showed up to the opening of a new fire station, the re-opening of a restaurant they’d saved, and every little event that asked them to send someone. He wasn’t really the one marketing executives and organizers of events wanted when they asked for a Defender, but he was the one they were gonna get until he was well enough to head back into the field.   
So that’s how he ended up in the hospital the day Lotor was brought in by his Generals. Keith was up in the children’s ward when Zethrid took the staff hostage. Acxa brought in their list of demands and Lotor himself, and set Ezor and Narti up to defend the hospital in the event police showed up. Which left Lance. Lotor was wheeled into the operating room quickly and attended to by all the current staff the hospital could muster and use for this.   
The generals evidently did not want to suspend normal hospital functions for this, but they kept a close eye on anyone who seemed healthy enough to stage a retaliation.   
Acxa had the hospital under control in minutes, with the orderlies complying to her demands without question. No one dared to do anything but shelter in place as ordered and attend to patients only when absolutely necessary. That was, no one but the children’s ward. Many of the kids had been free to roam at the time, just after lunch, and they were trapped in the activity rooms. The ones who needed medicine were attended to quickly once Acxa was aware of their needs, but she wouldn’t allow them to return the children to their rooms, as the movement of so many people would be risky. So she sent Lance.   
Lance looked the most human out of the generals. He had a broad smile and warm eyes and as soon as he was in the children’s ward he was hanging out with the kids.   
Keith had been able to hide in one of the cabinets of the activity room, but from there he kept a close eye on Lance. If Lance hurt a kid he would never forgive himself for standing by, but he couldn’t let himself be taken hostage by the generals either.   
Revenge clawed at his mind, his shoulder still calling for Lance’s blood in return. He tried to remain centered. Allura and Coran had been teaching him how to meditate to keep his bloodlust at bay, but being so close to the one who had caused him the insult was not helping.   
Kids were laughing. Lance was letting them pretend to be the defenders and defeat him. He was laughing, too. Lance looked happy to be there, like he belonged among playing children. He let a girl in a wheelchair ‘catch’ him, then later a boy with several maladies was being lifted gently in the air to fly around like Allura and ‘topple’ Lance to the floor.   
The nurses were able to give the kids medicines and get some of them to rest because Lance was distracting the nervous ones. He calmed the children down and gave reasonable time frames for the release of the hospital given Lotor’s outpatient operation.   
When the hospital was released, he left an email with one of the nurses. Keith asked her later what that was about, and she said Lance had offered to come back if the kids ever requested it. 

The next time the Defenders faced the Generals, Keith was not ready for Lance to smile at him.   
“Hey furball, How’s your shoulder holding up?” Lance spoke as he kept up with Keith’s movement, “You remember me from Garrison?”   
Keith growled. He couldn’t talk while he fought, too much of his breath went to the force of his strikes to form into words. Lance was dodging each blade like he had the same agility Keith did. But there was no way Lance had the enhanced agility thing, that was a Galra trait. Which meant that Lance was predicting his moves far enough ahead of them to be out of the way by the time Keith made them.   
Impressive.   
“Haven’t you ever wanted to just chill out for a moment, there, Keith?”   
“Shut up!”   
“You look like you’ve never relaxed a day in your life, dude, take a vacation sometime.”   
Keith did something unusual for himself and swept Lance’s legs. The move was far enough out of his repertoire it hurt his own leg to do it but it was also just enough that Lance didn’t see it coming. Lance toppled like a tinker toy tower.   
Keith had him. Keith had lance pinned to the ground with access to punch that stupid smug look off his face. But he didn’t.   
He paused, straddling on Lance’s ribcage with Lance’s arms pinned by his legs, and he couldn’t hit Lance in the face.   
“Dude, get off me, no fair!” Lance tried to kick to free himself.   
“I said shut up!”   
Lance turned his smug face into a grumpy one and glared up at Keith.   
“What is wrong with you?” He pouted.   
Keith assessed him. Even inconvenienced in the middle of a serious battle, Lance’s eyes were full of that same joy he’d had when he’d hugged the girl with a broken arm.   
Narti pulled Keith from Lance with her foot and collected him to get him on the transport out of there. Keith watched, stunned, as Lance stuck his tongue out at him.   
“You ok there, buddy?” Shiro helped Keith to his feet.  
“Yeah, Yeah.” Keith looked off after the ship Lotor had escaped on.   
“Did that Lance guy get you again? I should’ve been closer to you.” Hunk was there in an instant.  
“Dude seemed to have your shit all figured out, Keith, he was dodging before you even knew you were going to strike or feint.” Pidge already had gum in.   
“Language.” Shiro rubbed the bridge of his nose.   
Keith wandered a few paces off to think. How Lance had been able to study his fighting methods was troubling, but even more was his own hesitation. If he was going to effectively counter Lance, he had to get over holding back just because he’d seen him be good with kids.   
Something instinctual told him it wasn’t just the kids.   
He crushed that before it became a formed thought.

**Author's Note:**

> Is this my first Voltron fanfic? oh dang. I couldn't move on until I wrote this down, so it's short, but it's just about all I have to say on the matter.


End file.
